Michelle Phillips is a singer, songwriter, and actress. Born Holly Michelle Gilliam, she was a model before she was drawn into music. She became Michelle Phillips when she married her bandmate from a folk group called the New Journeymen, John Phillips. With the eventual addition of Denny Doherty and the smooth vocals of Mama Cass, they became The Mamas and the Papas.

While living in New York, her husband once awoke her for assistance writing what became "California Dreamin'". The royalties from that song kept Phillips comfortable long after the band, and the marriage, broke up. After affairs with Doherty and The Byrds' Gene Clark, Phillips was booted from the band in 1966, and replaced by Jill Gibson, a former backup singer for Jan & Dean. The group's sound, however, was not the same, and within a few months all was forgiven, and Phillips was brought back into the band.

After the Mamas and the Papas disbanded, Phillips sang backup vocals for Leonard Cohen. She was among the all-star vocals behind Cheech & Chong's single "Basketball Jones", along with George Harrison, Carole King, Billy Preston, and Tom Scott. In the late 1980s she also sang back-up behind Belinda Carlisle. She has had a second career as an actress, most successfully as Anne Matheson Sumner on the longrunning prime time soap opera Knotts Landing. She made numerous appearances on such '80s stalwarts as Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, and she played John Dillinger's moll Evelyn "Billie" Frechette in the film Dillinger.

Phillips was married to actor Dennis Hopper for eight days in 1970, and called it "the best week of my life". Her children include musician Chynna Phillips and drug-addled actress Mackenzie Phillips. She also became part of the extended Baldwin family of actors when her daughter Chynna married William Baldwin, the hangdog-faced Baldwin.